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Department of Social Sciences
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2024

EFI Annual Report 2024

Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation (EFI) recommends measures to strengthen social innovation in research and practice Praxis

Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation © EFI

In the Annual Report 2024, which was published on 28 February and handed over to Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Commission of Experts devotes a detailed chapter to social innovations, emphasizes their central importance for overcoming social challenges and recommends further steps to strengthen the topic in research and practice. The report also refers to definitions of TU Dortmund University’s Social Research Center and presents key results of its milestone project SI-Drive.

Against this background, the six-member Expert Commission on Research and Innovation (EFI) emphasizes the need for social innovations, which, in conjunction with technological innovations, can contribute to overcoming the major challenges facing society. The Expert Commission defines social innovations as new individual and collective behaviours and forms of organization that contribute to solving social or economic problems and thus create added value for society.

The EFI also welcomes the National Strategy for Social Innovation and Enterprises for the Common Good adopted in 2023 and sets additional priorities with regard to standardized indicators, the opening of existing funding formats for social innovation and their social dissemination. The need for better funding opportunities for social enterprises is also emphasized.

 

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